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Director of Data Science and Bioinformatics
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- Remote from
- USA
- Salary
- USD 186,300–232,900 / yr
- Department
- Data Science & Analytics
- Employment
- Full Time
- Experience
- Director
- Published
- Apply before
- 25 Nov 2026
- Listing views
- 55
- Application actions
- 2
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The role, at a glance.
Natera seeks a senior leader to build and scale its Data Science and Bioinformatics function for women's health and organ health diagnostic products. The role owns bioinformatics strategy, AWS infrastructure, reproducible NGS pipelines, MLOps practices, and clinical algorithm quality standards. It leads hiring, mentoring, and technical execution across a multidisciplinary team while partnering with research, laboratory operations, engineering, product development, and quality. Candidates need deep experience in bioinformatics or data science, cloud architecture, regulated clinical development, and people leadership. This is a high-impact technical leadership role supporting commercial genomics products.
Role DNA
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Pace & Pressure
5/5Autonomy Level
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5/5Salary analysis
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Core skills
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Sample interview questions
I would first assess product roadmaps, current pipelines, team capabilities, infrastructure constraints, and quality risks. I would then define a target operating model with clear ownership, hiring priorities, standards for code and pipeline review, and a staged roadmap tied to product milestones. Early investments would focus on reproducibility, automated testing, documentation, and reliable deployment paths.
I would use version-controlled workflow definitions, containerized tools, immutable reference data, automated infrastructure provisioning, and traceable input and output metadata. The pipeline would be orchestrated with a workflow framework such as Nextflow or WDL, with monitoring, audit logs, cost controls, and validation gates appropriate to clinical use.
I separate exploratory research from production workflows while ensuring a defined promotion path between them. That path includes documented requirements, code review, dataset versioning, statistical validation, reproducibility testing, and change-control evidence. This allows teams to experiment quickly without weakening production quality standards.
I would establish shared product objectives, clear decision rights, common technical artifacts, and recurring reviews focused on evidence and risks. I translate algorithmic trade-offs into operational and clinical impact, ensure dependencies are visible, and address disagreements early with data-driven recommendations.
I would track pipeline reproducibility, runtime, cost per sample, failure rate, deployment frequency, validation cycle time, defect escape rate, and availability of documentation and audit artifacts. For the team, I would also assess roadmap delivery, stakeholder satisfaction, talent development, and the ability to support additional product programs without compromising quality.
About this role.
This is an exciting opportunity to lead and grow the Data Science and Bioinformatics function supporting Natera’s Women’s Health and Organ Health product portfolios. In this role, you will build the bioinformatics capability within the Data Science development team, establish scalable AWS cloud infrastructure, and ensure the quality and reproducibility of the genomic algorithms powering our clinical products.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Strategy and Vision
- Build and define the Bioinformatics function within the Data Science development team, identify technical tooling gaps, and execute a roadmap to advance genomics-based algorithm development.
- Establish and enforce pipeline and algorithm quality standards, including review processes, validation frameworks, and documentation practices
Infrastructure and Automation
- Own and architect scalable AWS-based data science and bioinformatics infrastructure, ensuring quality, reproducibility, and reliable deployment of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) algorithms.
- Implement MLOps tooling and automated validation frameworks to support reliable algorithm deployment into clinical production.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with Research, Product Development, Laboratory Operations, Engineering, and Quality teams to implement stable, scalable pipelines and support successful productization
Team Leadership
- Lead, mentor and hire a high-performing team of bioinformaticians and data scientists, establishing technical quality standards and clear operational ownership.
- Build technical depth within the team to support expanding product roadmaps across Women’s Health and Organ Health.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Master of Science or Ph.D. in a quantitative technical discipline (Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or equivalent).
- Minimum of 10 years of experience in Data Science or Bioinformatics, with at least 5 years of direct people management experience leading technical teams.
- Hands-on experience architecting AWS cloud infrastructure for data-intensive bioinformatics workloads and NGS pipeline execution.
- Demonstrated ability to identify capability gaps independently, build scalable infrastructure, and drive execution without waiting for formal structure.
- Strong communicator who builds cross-functional alignment across Research, Engineering, and Quality teams through technical clarity, direct engagement, and data-driven reasoning.
- Track record of developing bioinformatics talent and delivering computational pipelines that support commercial product development.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Experience developing software and pipelines within regulated environments (CLIA, FDA, or ISO framework).
- Experience with MLOps frameworks and pipeline tools (MLflow, Nextflow, WDL, Docker).
- Advanced knowledge of statistical inference, machine learning, and genomic data processing.
The pay range is listed and actual compensation packages are based on a wide array of factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, years & depth of experience, certifications and specific office location. This may differ in other locations due to cost of labor considerations.
Remote USA
$186,300—$232,900 USD
OUR OPPORTUNITY
Natera™ is a global leader in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) testing, dedicated to oncology, women’s health, and organ health. Our aim is to make personalized genetic testing and diagnostics part of the standard of care to protect health and enable earlier and more targeted interventions that lead to longer, healthier lives.
The Natera team consists of highly dedicated statisticians, geneticists, doctors, laboratory scientists, business professionals, software engineers and many other professionals from world-class institutions, who care deeply for our work and each other. When you join Natera, you’ll work hard and grow quickly. Working alongside the elite of the industry, you’ll be stretched and challenged, and take pride in being part of a company that is changing the landscape of genetic disease management.
WHAT WE OFFER
Competitive Benefits – Employee benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life and disability plans for eligible employees and their dependents. Additionally, Natera employees and their immediate families receive free testing in addition to fertility care benefits. Other benefits include pregnancy and baby bonding leave, 401k benefits, commuter benefits and much more. We also offer a generous employee referral program!
For more information, visit www.natera.com.
Natera is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace environment, and welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives. Inclusive collaboration benefits our employees, our community and our patients, and is critical to our mission of changing the management of disease worldwide.
All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply, and will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable laws.
If you are based in California, we encourage you to read this important information for California residents.
Link: https://www.natera.com/notice-of-data-collection-california-residents/
Please be advised that Natera will reach out to candidates with a @natera.com email domain ONLY. Email communications from all other domain names are not from Natera or its employees and are fraudulent. Natera does not request interviews via text messages and does not ask for personal information until a candidate has engaged with the company and has spoken to a recruiter and the hiring team. Natera takes cyber crimes seriously, and will collaborate with law enforcement authorities to prosecute any related cyber crimes.
For more information:
– BBB announcement on job scams
– FBI Cyber Crime resource page
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